What Alysa Liu's Olympic gold medal can teach every athlete about pressure, process, and what sport is actually for. On February 19, 2026, Alysa Liu stood at the center of an Olympic arena in Milan and did something almost no elite athlete does at the highest moment of their career. She just . . . skated. Not gripping. Not white-knuckling the moment. Not performing strength she didn't feel. She smiled through her program, flipped her ponytail at the end, and then stood in the

A step-by-step guide for athletes on feeling it, facing it, and finding your way back. Here is the thing nobody tells you when you start competing: setbacks aren't the exception. They're written into the contract. Missed cuts. Injuries. A race that falls apart at mile three. Getting benched. A season that doesn't go the way you planned. A performance that makes you question whether you belong here at all. Every athlete, at every level, will face versions of all of these. The

Why both sides of the scoreboard carry psychological risk — and why the moment after the medal can be the most dangerous of all. We talk about mental health in sport as if the primary risk is failure. Lose the championship. Get cut from the team. Miss the qualifying standard. Those are the moments we imagine breaking an athlete down. But some of the most quietly devastating mental health crises in elite sport happen not after a loss, but after a win. After the gold medal. Aft

You've trained your body for years. You know how to build strength, manage fatigue, and push through physical discomfort. But there's a good chance you were not taught what to do when your mind becomes the obstacle. Not the opponent. Not the conditions. Your own thoughts. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - known as ACT - is a research-supported approach to psychological wellbeing that has been adapted for athletes at every level. It won't tell you to think positively or pus

You've heard it your whole athletic career: be a perfectionist. Set high standards. Don't settle. Push until it's right. And honestly? Up to a point, that advice works. But here's what a major new piece of research found, and it's worth understanding if you're a competitive athlete. What the Research Actually Found A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis (a study of studies, pooling data from 31 research papers and over 6,000 athletes) took a hard look at the relationship